Roses are Red
by sniperocker123
Summary: Bella's a vampire. Edward's a vampire. Bella's in love with Edward. Edward's in love with Bella. Enter, Annabeth. Bella's sister and Ms. Goody-two-shoes. A tale of friendship, love and family. Twilight, AU.
1. Chapter 1 - New Beginnings

**Hey Guys!**

**Just started writing this in my head and it just had to come out on the computer screen. I'm still in the process of completing my story Saving The Cullens and will complete it. So this one will be on a hold for some time. But I wanted to see if I got a positive response for this one so that I can keep writing this.**

**So happy reading!**

**And remember- this can only be continued if you want it too. And if you want me to continue then you're gonna have to let me know. And for that you will have to -wait for it- REVIEW!**

**BPOV**

Jealous, irritated and currently listening to my sister banging her boyfriend. Yep, that's me. Isabella Swan. Just Bella would do best, though. Yup that's much better. Bella. And my sister- Annabeth Swan. And the guy who's doing her right this instant- Diego Francis. Asshole.

Now the fact that I can hear my sister doing 'the deed' may suggest that I'm a voyeur and all types of wrong but what I really am is this – helpless. Unable to do anything but grit my teeth angrily and clench and unclench my fists repeatedly. Again and again and again.

After 15 minutes of nothing but excruciating torture, I slowly got up from where I was perched on the window-sill of my room and jumped down. Did I forget to mention I'm a vampire?

No I said it. Ofcourse I did. Definitely. Moving on, as soon as my feet touched the ground, I walked towards the city. The familiar roads were eerily silent except for the occasional cars passing by. But mostly it was quiet. Even the crickets could not be heard now. Almost as if they could sense danger. I briefly felt offended._ As if I'm gonna eat you Mr. Cricket._ Wow, I was losing my mind. I vaguely wondered what the non-pathetic people were doing tonight. Whatever.

I slowly turned along with the side walk when a park caught my attention. I looked around to make sure no one was watching and then shook my head at my own stupidity. I would've been experiencing a burning in my throat if anyone really was around.

I jumped into the park and an old abandoned swing swing was where my feet took me almost automatically. I sat on it gingerly so as not to damage it any further.

A few minutes of peaceful silence later, my phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled out my iPhone to see its screen lit up with a single text.

You alright sis? - A

I sighed and called my sister.

"Bella? Hun, you okay?" Anna answered after the first ring. That was Anna for you. Straight to the point. Absolutely no need for greeting.

"Yea, I'm fine," I lied. "I'm just in some old park. I'm gonna miss this place, you know. We had some of the best times here." _Especially when it was just you and me_, I mentally added.

"I know, Bella. I know. But trust me, Forks will be really great. I mean we'll obviously be resuming our studies in high school but that's no biggie. We'll be fine. Just like we always are,"Anna reassured me quietly.

I smiled at my sister's mature attitude.

"Last time I checked, I was older than you, Anna. So why exactly are you going all 'older sister' on me?"

"Get your scrawny ass home, Bella. We have to leave soon and you haven't even started packing. You know, for a vampire, you're an awfully messy thing. I can almost envision you throwing in a Versace and Chanel in the same shoe-box," she said and I could almost hear her shudder.

"I'll be back in two," I laughed and started my way back home. I could have run home but I just wanted to take my time. I felt that way, sometimes.

An elderly couple were strolling on the other side of the street. The old, frail woman was on a wheelchair, being pushed ahead by her equally fragile husband.

_Meals on wheels,_ I thought to myself. Venom flooded in my mouth and for a moment, the monster screamed at me to tear, feed and satisfy the overbearingly painful thirst I felt. I quickly shook my head from the stupor that my blood-crazed mind had created and continued my walk home.

* * *

**EPOV**

I gazed up at the night sky from my window and marveled at the beauty. At times like these, I wished that I had someone to share my musings with. If not a lover, then maybe a friend. Just a friend. Someone who would listen to me and I could listen to in return. Was it really too much to ask for?

Being a vampire certainly had its benefits. Or so we thought, anyway. But for me, life had become monotonous. And monotony to an immortal was the worst type of hell possible. I pushed these thoughts aside as I heard light, rhythmic steps fill the room wit their almost melodic harmony.

"Don't you have homework to do son?" Carlisle asked playfully, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

I turned and grinned at him, "Nope, dad. All done."

He grinned back for a while and then sighed. "Thinking hard, Edward?"

"No," I replied, a little too eagerly.

Carlisle raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe," I amended.

Carlisle gave me a sour expression.

"Yes," I admitted, with a groan.

"What about?" he asked, his forehead creasing with worry.

"The constellation Orion," I lied, dusting a speck of dust from my jeans.

"Edward?" Carlisle said again, smiling a little. I sighed.

"Alice's vision. She won't tell me what she saw and she won't think about it. I only caught a glimpse of myself gawking rather rudely at something in school. It's gotten me, for lack of a better word, jumpy," I admitted.

"Edward, son, you know better than anyone how Alice is. She loves you and she wouldn't hide anything from you unless she thought it would help you keep faith, son."

I sighed again.

Keep faith. That's all I'd heard all my life – existence - I corrected myself.

They always told me to keep faith.

In what, they never said.

**So waddya think? Should I continue it? Please lemme know. Reviewers get a shout-out in the next chapter (provided I get enough reviews to continue writing this)**

**:P**


	2. Chapter 2 - Introductions and Reunions

**Greetings readers!**

**Now I know I promised that I would get back to this story later but sum reviewers asked for another chapter just to see what this story was really about, since the first chapter wasn't of much help (Sorry about that).**

**So here it is...Please review and let me know your thoughts. **

**EPOV**

"Edward, you don't _need _to be brooding and sullen all the frikin' time now, do you?" Emmett asked as he continued flicking and changing the radio stations in my car. I ignored his question and slapped his hand away. Again.

"Hey, what's your problem?" he asked, irritated at my lack of response.

"He's not in the brightest of moods and he does not wish to be spoken to," Jasper answered.

I almost turned to give Jasper an incredulous stare but caught myself quickly.

One more conversation averted – Check.

Rosalie was, as usual, thinking about herself and Alice remained quiet. It was another thing completely that she was singing songs by Sugababes in her mind. Over and over and over.

Thankfully, school arrived and I practically jumped out of my car after parking it at my usual spot. While I crossed the parking lot, the usual wave of thoughts hit me with full force. But unlike the other days, today the thoughts were focused on two new students, both sisters. Although why two young girls would choose to live in this god-forsaken excuse for a town was beyond me.

_Whoa! Wonder if they're related to the Cullens. God I'm jealous._

_ Look at that fine piece of ass. Oh man, I'd just gotten rid of my boner._

_ Tyler is supposed to be looking at ME! I wonder who these two freaks are. I hope they join the other freaky family they're probably related to and STAY THERE!_

That particularly loud train of thought hit me full force and I cringed, tuning out all the 'voices' in the vicinity.

It was amusing how exchange students were always the reason of gossip and drama in Forks High School. They'd remain in the spot light for a few more weeks before they blended in with the rest of the students. Been there, done that.

"Looks like there's a couple of new students," I said to my family.

"And...?" Rosalie asked.

"And nothing, "Alice chirped, literally bouncing with each step she took. "Come on guys let's go."

"She's so weird," I heard Jessica Stanley say and I turned to glare at her. At my glower, she managed to look chagrined, then confused and then quickly scrambled away. I chuckled softly to myself and followed my family into the cafeteria.

At once I saw and smelt them. Vampires.

My instincts kicked in and I barely contained myself from dropping into a crouch and snarling at the two vampires. They were sitting at a far away table and speaking in a low voice. There were two of them. Both brunettes – but one of them younger than the other. They were probably no more that 16 and 18 years old but even this small difference in their age could be made out by their posture and expressions. The whole cafeteria was staring and ogling them, but their eyes were fixated on us. Beside me, Alice stilled. Her vision came hard and fast.

"_Would you be willing to discuss this at our house? It's right on the borders of the town and we assure you that we will not harm you," I said, calmly._

"_That would be good. Thank you for the invitation. We will see you there," one of the sisters – the older, angelic one – replied._

Immediately, Alice and I relaxed. They posed no immediate threat to us.

I turned to the rest of my family and saw that they were staring across the cafeteria, at the two new-comers too.

"It's alright. Alice had a vision and we don't see them as threats. We will invite them home, though. Carlisle would want to know about them," I said and turned back to the girls who were now looking at us curiously.

"Ok then. Go and give it your best shot, Eddie poo. Call the two hot chicks over," Emmett hollered, clapping my back and heading to our usual table. The rest of my family gave me sympathetic looks and they too, left. I turned around to find the two girls giggling amongst themselves.

I sighed and slowly walked up to them.

"Hello," I said. "I'm Edward and that is my family," I said pointing towards the rest of my family that was looking at us inquisitively.

"I'm Annabeth but please, call me Anna. And this is my sister Bella," the younger looking girl said. Bella gave me a tentative smile that I returned. At my smile, hers turned into a full blown grin.

"So you're name is Edward but your family calls you Eddie poo?" Bella asked, her amber eyes alight with mischief.

I groaned and she laughed. My eyes immediately snapped open and locked with hers. Her laugh, her smile, her eyes they were all so beautiful that I felt myself falling and drowning into them a little. We continued to look at each other and the silence deepened. And changed. Little flickers of electricity buzzed around us and her freesia and strawberry scent was close. So, so close. And I wanted it to be closer.

"Ahem."

Anna cleared her throat unnecessarily and raised an eyebrow at us. Bella and I looked away from each other and smiled sheepishly at Anna, who was grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

"So we're coming over then?" Bella asked, cocking her head to the side.

"I-I thought that maybe you'd like to meet my family...," I started nervously.

"We'd love to meet them all. Properly, that is. We'll be there. When do you expect us?"

"After school, maybe? Carlisle, my father, he's home today. He works at the hospital and he's our creator. He'd love to know about you two as well."

"Your father, a vampire, works at the hospital? With all the blood?" Anna said incredulously. She turned to Bella, then. "I told you I had a good feeling about Forks."

Bella rolled her eyes and turned to me. "We'll be there Edward. We'll follow you guys right after school leaves, in our car."

"Then I'll see you two around then?" I said, scratching the back of my neck – a resurfacing attribute of human men. They did it when they were nervous. I did it when I was shy.

"Well, I hope so. Do you mind if a friend of ours comes along?" Bella asked softly and for a moment I panicked. What if she had a boyfriend? A mate? But then Anna spoke up and eased my irrational yet justified fears.

"He's a _friend_ to _you_, Bella. He's my husband," Anna rolled her eyes and turned to me. "You are okay if I bring him along right?"

"Absolutely. The more, the merrier," I said with too much enthusiasm and Bella laughed again. I smiled at the sound and she would have blushed if she could, I was sure of that.

_Come on, Edward. Let's go. You have Calculus now, remember? _my sister thought, rather loudly, from across the cafeteria and I nodded absently.  
When both Bella and Anna gave me a curious look I shrugged. "So, um, I'll just go now," I said, walking backwards and almost tripping. Bella stood up immediately, still laughing and placed a hand on my arm, ready to steady me.

"I don't think vampires ever fall," she murmured softly.

But she was wrong. I was a vampire. And I'd fallen.

-0-

"That cafeteria rendezvous of yours looked like it was intense," Emmett said and I sighed. The man just could not grasp the concept of not interrupting someone's daydream.

"Look, all I did was invite them over, okay? And if you pay attention, that Saab right behind us belongs to them. They're coming to our house, just like they promised."

"Fine. I'm just trying to make conversation, man," Emmett grumbled and went back to doing whatever the hell he was doing before.

"Did you guys see them after lunch? In fact they ditched right after the third period. Bella was in my English class and Anna was in Chemistry with me. That's all. Their car was gone too," Rosalie said, confused.

"They probably left to search for Anna's husband or something. What amazes me if how two vampires just seemed to easily trust a coven of seven. It's weird," Jasper said.

"What's even weirder is that they're vegetarians. Surely Carlisle would have heard if there was another coven of vegetarian vampires, don't you think?" Alice said.

"Weird," Emmett repeated.

And I could swear Bella winked at me when I saw her from my rear view mirror.

-0-

Carlisle and Esme already knew that we would be bringing over two more vampires and they were prepared. I got out of my car just in time to see Bella, Anna and the other male with them. I still couldn't explain it but it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders when the blond vampire went ahead and held Anna's hand in his own. Bella gave me a small smile and walked towards me. It felt as natural as the day turning into night when I offered Bella my arm and she took it without hesitation. Little sparks of electricity began humming throughout my body and when Bella gasped, I knew she felt it too.

Together we walked to the house and for the first time I noticed that the rest of the family had already gone in. I helped Bella out of her jacket and she looked around appreciatively.

"It's Bella, isn't it?" Esme asked as she came out and Bella gave a small nod. Esme pulled her into a hug and Bella froze for a millisecond before she wrapped her arms around Esme too. Somehow, my mother's approval of this girl became important to me and I was relieved that Esme seemed to like her.

"Let me show you in," Esme said and ushered Bella into the living room where everyone was gathered. Carlisle smiled at Bella and she tentatively returned that smile.

"You have a beautiful home," Anna said, smiling at all of us.

"Thank you," Carlisle said. "I think I'll start by making introductions, if that's ok?"

Bella smiled and nodded.

"This is Esme, my wife. That's Rosalie and her husband Emmett. Alice and her husband Jasper and of course you know Edward," he said pointing towards each of us and then raising an eyebrow at our intertwined hands. Bella smiled at each one of my family members and then introduced hers.

"This is my sister Annabeth and her husband Diego. We were staying in Fairbanks, Alaska for the past three years and we just moved in. Right now, we stay in Forks but we're thinking of moving a little outside of town, just like you. It gives us the privacy we need."

Bella was saying something about the wildlife being plentiful in Forks but the greater part of my attention was trained on Diego. He was staring at Alice and his thoughts were all over the place. It was difficult to get a single reading but I recognized tidbits and realized that the gray eyed girl I was seeing in his thoughts was a human Alice.

"Mary Alice Brandon?. You're from Biloxi, Mississippi , aren't you? Can you still see the future?" he suddenly blurted out and Alice's face paled. She had clearly not anticipated this. She went right up to him and clutched at the collar of his shirt.

"You know me?" she cried.

-0-

**Let me know about what you think!**

**Much love**

**Thanks to: Neilieanna, Danni-Sherlockian-Ireland, lou2read, JustWannaBeAnonymous and Suzuki Ai.  
**


	3. Chapter 3 - Telling Tales

**EPOV**

**Chapter 3- Telling Tales**

* * *

"It was back in father was a pearl trader. Your family was very respected throughout the town and your mother stayed home to take care of you and your sister, Cynthia Brandon. Her daughter- your niece- is still alive in Biloxi..." Diego trailed off and his thoughts took him to a very old lady smiling gently, surrounded by three little children.

"How did you know me then?" Alice asked nervously.

"I was to be married to you," Diego said nonchalantly.

"What?!" Alice asked, amazed.

"You and I, we were best friends since childhood. You'd always come and tell me of all the premonitions you'd have and I'd call you "my sweet smart girl". Then when we were 17, you had a vision of your mother dying and you started to panic. We were to be married in a year and I'd told you not to say anything about your vision. Though you rarely spoke of your power, the villagers knew enough and spoke a lot about the Brandon's breeding a 'witch' and a 'changeling'. And then two months later when your mother did die..." he paused.

"What happened? Tell me," Jasper said, clutching Alice's hand because he knew something bad was coming, Alice had seen it and so had I.

"Your father...he had you transferred into a mental asylum. I begged him not to but he just wouldn't budge. I-I really don't know what happened to you after that, I'm afraid. I thought about you many times, all through the years. I thought what we had was love...but we just weren't meant to be, I guess. A year after you disappeared from the asylum, I was turned and I knew then that you were turned too. I tried looking for you everywhere but it was of no use, you were long gone. I'm sorry I didn't try harder," Diego ended, bowing his head low in shame.

"It's alright, Diego. Thank you, though. For everything," Alice smiled, relieved to have discovered a part of her human life. Although knowing Alice, she'd figure out the rest of her history herself.

"Wow. Of all the things that could've happened today, two old friends got united. Weird," Bella said, grinning at Anna.

"In that case, I'm glad we found each other," Carlisle said, genuinely.

"Why don't you tell us something about you? How were you changed?" I asked and suddenly I was bombarded by images of Volterra, Demitri and screams. I pulled out immediately and looked up questioningly at Bella and Anna.

"You might wanna get comfortable, this may take some time," Anna said, looking down at her feet and clenching her fists.

-0-

"My sister and I were changed about three years ago," Bella began.

"You are both newborns?" Jasper asked surprised.

"Is that what they call new vampires?" Anna asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Uh, yea it is," Rosalie said.

"Newborns? Seriously? What were they thinking when they thought of such a name, huh?" Anna laughed.

Bella rolled her eyes at that comment and I chuckled too.

"When you put it that way, yea, it does sound dumb," Rosalie smiled.

"Anyways, we were telling you about how we were changed, yes?" Bella asked.

At once everybody sobered down and nodded at her to continue. She gave a small smile but it didn't really light up her amber eyes like it should have.

"My mom, dad, and the two of us, of course, were on a trip to Italy. It was a little family thing that we did often. We'd all saved our bit and that particular year, we left to see Italy. We had a great time out there, it was just us and I felt so ecstatic the entire time I was there, you know. It was great. And then, the last stop before we left to come back to America was Volterra."

There were gasps all around the room and my family started drawing their own conclusions. Alice closed her eyes and thought about all Greek poets and their hometowns in her head. The fact that she was blocking me proved that something bad was to come.

Without even thinking about what I was doing, I walked up to Bella and gave her my hand. She smiled at me and took it, intertwining her fingers around my own. The thoughts of my family registered surprise but that was a conversation for another time.

"It was a bus full of tourists. And there was this one old woman in the bus who was with a rosary and she was saying something...I remember feeling sorry for her. And since no one understood her, no one paid much attention to her. The bus stopped at the castle and we were taken in to the castle by our _guide_," Bella said, her face twisting into a sneer.

"Heidi was very convincing," Anna murmured almost to herself and I saw Diego's hold on her waist tightening. I had no idea what was to come but it was going to be bad. I could tell.

"_You just_have_to see Volterra,_she'd said," Bella muttered, seemingly talking to herself. "She took all of us to the master chamber. That's where we saw the three of them. Aro, Caius and Marcus; along with the guard and the wives. It was in that moment I knew that this was going to change everything..."Bella said and looked out the window into the distance.

"I saw our parents being killed right in front of my eyes," Anna continued after a few minutes. "I had thought that maybe watching so much blood would kill me right then, but no. It was the dead bodies of my parents that made me sick. And there was no way Bella and I could have escaped. We'd worked out by then what these _things_ were, but by the way they seemed to be snapping people's necks, we knew our fate was sealed. It was Demetri and Felix that approached us first. They saw us both huddled in a corner, crying, and they seemed to turn around and speak to their masters."

"They said something to each other in a foreign language, Italian we'd assumed, and after a heated argument, Demetri and Felix came to us, smiling and assured us that we would be their most esteemed guests and they would make our stay very _pleasurable,_" Bella said quietly.

Both sisters seemed to take a deep breath and looked at each other. Bella gave a small nod to Anna and so along with Diego, Anna left the room. Bella turned to us, then.

"Please excuse her. She'll be back."

"Of course, Bella. If you don't want to continue..." Jasper trailed off.

"It's quite alright." Another deep breath. "Demetri and Felix kept both of us in an underground cellar. It was huge, but pitch black. We were regularly given food and after some time we thought that maybe they'd considered our freedom. What we didn't quite know is that it was going to take a turn for the worse. One night, when both of us were fast asleep, I was woken by the sound of laughter. I woke up to see Demetri standing right above me with a menacing smile. I was foolish enough to think that maybe they were going to let us go...but when he started unbuckling his pants...all I could do was think that my life was finally going to be over, and so was my sister's. Because beside me, Felix was leering at my sister."

Bella took another deep breath and looked at her hand in mine. Never before had I felt such rage and sure enough, it was a sentiment echoed by each person in my family. I tried to get a hold on my bearings but a growl escaped nonetheless. To think of the way Bella and Anna had been violated...it just made me want to kill someone. A certain Italian someone. Bella looked up and started speaking again. I clenched my teeth and tried to listen patiently.

"Our screams seemed to spur them on. Sometimes they'd switch partners. We were never kept in the same cell after that night, though. So we could always hear the other's screams. And for me, my sister's pain was worse than my own, but there was nothing I could do. They'd never even kill us, even though we'd begged multiple times. I don't know for how long they kept us there. It could have been days or months. Suddenly one day, they seemed to tire of us and they bit us. The pain of the transformation lasted for about three days. And amongst my screams, I could hear my sister's as well. And I could do absolutely nothing."

"Once the transformation was over, they told us everything about who and what we were and all the rules and shit. They threw us out on the street and let us go our own way. The only thing that kept us from feeding on humans was the fact that we had been witness to hundreds of deaths of people by vampires and we just couldn't bear to do that."

Bella seemed to be thinking about something as she gazed outside the window, unseeingly. Suddenly, she snapped out of it and looked at us with a small smile.

"I'm sorry I got carried away. But you wanted to know, so..." she trailed off.

"That's alright, dear," Esme said, with a warm smile although her heart ached for the two young girls.

"Now that that's out of the way, would you like to explain why I can't read your thoughts?" I asked, winking at Bella. My pitiful attempt at relieving the atmosphere of its tension.

She raised a perfect eyebrow at me and I shrugged. "You're a mind reader?"

"Yes."

"And you've been trying to read my mind? Ever since that time in the cafeteria, haven't you?"

I nodded sheepishly. It had irritated me to no end that I could not read her mind when I'd been relentlessly trying to break past the barrier that protected her mind.

"I knew it. I didn't know who it was, but it was definitely one of you. I could feel you, you know, trying to break through my shield. Like small little nudges, looking for a weakness. I called you my "Little Nudger" in my head all day," she laughed.

All of my family started to laugh at the nick name she gave me and I tried to be angry. I gave it up soon though and laughed along with them.

"Enough humor at my expense. Now tell me, are you a shield?" I asked.

"A shield and a very good one at that, Edward," she laughed. _But that's not all I can do, Mr. Mind reader._

* * *

**This chapter was dedicated to the Fandom For Suicide Awareness and beta'd by my dear friend Suzuki Ai. Best wishes to everyone for a happy holiday season.**

**:)**


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